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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

How-To's Day: Get your Etsy Shop Going NOW!

Over the weekend while I was at the Hello Etsy LA, I met a bunch of amazing artists who are new to Etsy/ Just opened their shops with tons of questions about what now?

We opened our Etsy Shop in 2009 and it is a wonderful market place and community to be a part of. My biggest advise: Just do as much as you can getting your shop set up and the work will pay off! The beauty of running your Etsy Shop is the work pays off, and you get back what you put into it :)

Step one in my opinion is making sure you look open for business! Getting your name figured out is important, but it takes just a few moments to get the bare-bones of your shop ready.

There are two things that in my opinion are the bare minimum for setting up your shop:

A banner and an avatar

#1 An avatar: Your credibility (or lack there of sometimes) starts with the tiny picture that represents you. I have heard mixed opinions on if it needs to be a logo with just a name or symbol, a product picture, or a photo of yourself.

I have been in some discussion groups where people say they will only purchase from sellers who have a picture of themselves for an avatar. This to them shows their respect and bond to the artist in a world where everything seems to come from a faceless factory. They like knowing that it comes from a real person and they feel this connection by knowing what you look like. Personally, this isn't how I feel- I will purchase something that peaks my interest with no bias to if there is a picture or not. Tip: It might pay off to slip a picture of yourself up to see if it increases sales if you hit a lull because maybe you have a photo craving customer base.

On the other hand, I like the option of either a product shot or something that includes your name/ logo. If you get active on Etsy and are involved in commenting on teams and forums a picture of you may not draw people into your shop the same as seeing an item they want to buy or to find out what that crazy name means. Just remember that this picture isn't just an afterthought, it can be your hook, line, and sinker of intrigue.

#2
A shop banner: This is a great way to set the tone for what you are
providing and what style/ feeling you want to have overall in your
shop. If you want to have something you customized fully but don't have
it done yet, don't let this step hold you up. Etsy has a wonderful
video tutorial on (the unoffical) Etsy Business BlogUsing Gimp (a free program) to make your Banner where you can pick from templates and have a suitable one almost instantly.

For your banner graphic at the top of your shop:

Make sure you have your properly sized image saved on your computer. Your banner should be 760 x 100 pixels at 72 dpi. Banner images must be .jpg, .png or .gif file format.

To upload your banner image to your Etsy shop, go to Your Account > Info & Appearance. Click the Browse button to locate the file on your computer, then click the Save button at the bottom of the page. Your new banner will show up in your shop momentarily.

This real estate space is so valuable for setting the tone for your shop. Currently, I feel that I haven't been capitalizing on our banner as much as we should and it is on my must list to try out the tutorial above and see how much it pays off for us. At the time we made our banner we still weren't 100% what our product line would evolve into. I am super pumped making this post and reminding myself that some work is in order for us too.

None of this sounding interesting to you and wanna find an Etsy Artist to make one for you?

copyrights, credits & recognition...

If we failed to give proper or accurate credit to a photo on this blog, please let us know. Everything we post is meant to be shared in the most positive, complimentary fashion. If you see a photo of yours and you would like me to remove it, please do not hesitate to ask and I will do so immediately.